Shootouts and assassinations: the underworld we’ve been exposed to

The number of deaths in South Africa due to public shootouts and assassinations has so far outpaced the number of months in a year.

Last month, there were 47 murders recorded by forensic services in Cape Town alone. Twenty-seven of the incidents were shootings, 13 stabbings and seven murders "by other means".

Last week, millionaire tobacco boss Simon Rudland was shot in a suspected assassination attempt, and just before that former footballer Marc Batchelor was killed in a targeted hit that drew comparisons to Serbian gang killings.

Here are four public shootouts and assassinations so far in 2019:

News of former footballer Marc Batchelor's murder sent shockwaves across South Africa after he was gunned down near his Johannesburg home on July 15.

Batchelor was in his BMW SUV with his gardener outside his Olivedale home when unknown suspects pulled up beside him on two motorbikes and unleashed a hail of bullets at him.

Nearly 50 people were murdered in Cape Town on the "payday weekend" of July 26.

This was an increase from the weekend before, but the provincial government said it was a "declining trend from previous payday weekends, which usually have the highest death toll".

This was an increase from the 25 murders recorded by the province’s forensics services the weekend before.

On August 2, CCTV cameras caught a cash-in-transit heist at Aerorand, Middelburg, where four armed suspects approached a security official, grabbing an undisclosed amount of money.

A shootout erupted between the suspects and security officials, leaving one bystander dead and two others injured.

Millionaire tobacco boss Simon Rudland was critically injured in a shooting in Johannesburg on August 14. The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association confirmed that "an incident" occurred outside its Orchards offices.

In a video circulating on social media, a black Porsche Boxster, believed to be Rudland’s, is shown pulling up to a gate. A white Golf pulls alongside and shots are fired from the vehicle at the Porsche.

Rudland survived the shooting and is doing "okay" in hospital.